Toro-bots – the PhantomX Based Robotic Japanese Garden Lamps!?

Trossen Customer Cassinelli Alvaro has just posted a video of his newest creation, the Toro-Bots. These robots have Japanese style lanterns affixed to the top of a PhantomX Quadrupeds. The cralwers allow the lanterns to become a dynamic part of a garden landscape.

From the videos description,

We propose here a garden that takes care of itself, that somehow understands and re-interprets the rules of harmony and equilibrium, and reconfigures itself depending on the season, the presence or absence of a human observers – that develops structure in a generative way, creating a dynamic conversation between the elements in the garden.

Each lamp is programmed with a different behavior, giving it it’s own personality. Using infrared rangefinders, allowing them to sense the presence of other objects and react by moving away or towards those objects. The robots are connected to an XBee network with a central computer allowing for easy control of the robots from a mobile device, like an iPad as shown in the video.

And as if this setup wasn’t cool enough as is, each lamp has blinking infrared beacon at its top. An infrared camera watches the entire garden, allowing for tracking of the lamps within the garden. This can allow the system to react to many more variables and perform more complex behaviors.